M. Suzanne Terry

Now that we’ve covered the challenges I didn’t quite finish in 2023, let’s move on to the challenges I want to work on next year. 

I’m not going to make it to the 180 books I planned to read this year, but I’m going to try again in 2024. I did, however, read a few more than I finished last year, and I still have almost a week of reading to go. So lofty goals help me read more even when I have long, dry periods of no focus. I’ll take it.

I’m also back on my nonsense of choosing four different challenges (three for the whole year, one for summer). It was good to take a year off, but I missed them, and I got a little jealous when I saw the communities discussing and recommending books for the categories. 

I’m going with my favorites:

• Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge – I like this one because it’s designed to diversify your reading list, and it definitely does that for mine, both in authors and genres represented. 
• POPSUGAR Reading Challenge – I love the whimsy of this challenge. The prompts are unusual, and I especially like that the prompts follow a theme (and that the theme is “dictionary”). 
• The 52 Book Club Challenge – Designed to help you average a book a week, the prompts on this one also make you think outside the box. As an added bonus, I adore this community, and they have super cute merch. I have my own tracking system in place but if I didn’t, I’d be scooping up that journal in a flash.
• Modern Mrs. Darcy’s Minimalist Summer Reading Guide (not out yet, obvi) – This is my favorite online bookish community, and they put so much thought into their reading guides. Maybe I’ll actually finish this one this year. Maybe I’ll even finish it in the summertime. 

For those of you who are clicking the links and doing the math…yes, you are correct. If you total the number of books on the four challenges (assuming 12-ish from the MMD Summer Challenge), it comes to 137. By the time I fill in their blanks and read for the book clubs and other social reading I do, that doesn’t leave me a lot of open choices for just fun, which is absolutely essential to my reading life. 

The way I get around that is by allowing the same book to count for multiple challenges. In fact, I delight in finding books that fulfill different prompts. A little thrill rushes through me when I discover one that works for all of them. So I can probably read 60-70 books and still complete them all, leaving the rest of the 180 with quite a bit of wiggle room.

I’m so excited about these challenges that I may not even wait until January 1 to start. 

Do you like reading challenges? If so, what are your favorites?

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I don’t think I’ve ever finished the Girlxoxo Monthly Key Word Challenge any year that I’ve tried it. It may be time to retire this one. It’s a great idea, but it always gets relegated to the back of the line. 

Here are the ones I read (and also what I planned to read but didn’t). 

January

Keyword – all

Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves was fantastic. Whoever recommended it to me (I can’t remember, but if it was you – thank you so much!) told me to read it without knowing the premise, and I’m so glad I did. The book would have still been a decent story if I had read the jacket synopsis and the Goodreads blurb and then perused a few reviews, but I was really glad that certain elements were surprises. It made a good book even more enjoyable. So I’m giving you the same advice. Give it a read, but go into it as a blank slate.

February

Keyword – book

So…here’s what happened. 

I originally meant to read The Book Lover’s Cookbook for this prompt, but after a few months of choosing to read anything but this book, I finally just took it back to the library. Then, I decided to read The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean. Have I even opened this one? No. No, I have not. I know exactly where it is in my apartment, though, so at least there’s that?

March

Keyword – friend

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante – I have owned this book for years, but when I put it on my March TBR I could not find it anywhere. So I ended up borrowing the library’s ebook copy. I love this exposition of lifelong friendship and how the dynamic changed as the two main characters got older, particularly as other people came in and out of their lives. I particularly enjoyed how well Ferrante wrote the perspective of the storyteller when she was an adolescent. I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

April

Keyword – found (or some variation thereof)

I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer – This is a collection of erasure poetry. For the base of each poem, Baer takes an existing message, such as the ones she receives from social media or via DM, and lifts words out of it to form a response. It was a quick read but a good one. I want to read Baer’s other collections, too.

May

Keyword – dragon

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King was my plan. Even though I didn’t do so this year, technically, I have read this book. I read it for a book report in 6th grade. It was my first Stephen King book (and one of his milder ones, content-wise). My English teacher took one look at the author’s name and was scandalized, and my mom was like, “You said she could read anything as long as it was fiction. This is fiction. I don’t see the problem.” 

It’s still one of my favorite Stephen King novels. 

June

Keyword – wild

Something Wild & Wonderful by Anita Kelly – Every time I read a book in which the characters go hiking, I grow more confident in my absolute lack of desire to do so myself. If any book was going to convince me, though, this one would. It made hiking sound fun and charming and adventurous and even romantic. As a person of faith, though, my favorite part was Alexei’s letters toward the end of the book in which he talked about what hiking the PCT reminded him/taught him about his own beliefs. I also adored watching his relationship with Ben unfold and how they navigated boundaries and the impact that their social circles had on them. Very sweet story.

July

Keyword – this

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH. Even if I hadn’t read anything else on this challenge, I would have posted this recap just so I could talk about this book. 5/5 stars, highly recommend, whether you like time travel, sci-fi, and romance or not. It’s so witty and beautiful and good. The audio is nice, but I also enjoyed reading along with the ebook. I am also probably going to buy a print copy, because I want it on my shelf and will probably read it again. The banter and the character development were fantastic, and the plot moved along at the perfect pace. 

August

Keyword – how

How Not To Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz – The reader of the audiobook is amazing. Definitely get this one on audio. The story is told as a first-person account of the main character’s meetings with her employment agency clerk. I loved this unique approach – it’s a fun way to let the reader get a sense of the character and how she presents herself. Parts of the story were sweet; other parts were sad. All of them made me root for her, even when she was wrong.

September

Keyword – lies

Big Little Lies by Liana Moriarty – I may still read this one before the year is over. I’ve started it, and I like it so far.

October

Keyword – darkness (or some variation thereof)

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacey Willingham – I figured out the killer pretty early, but the story was still interesting and kept my attention. It was a quick read and sparked a good book club discussion, so I’m counting it as a win!

November

Keyword – two

When Two Feathers Fell From the Sky by Margaret Verble – The premise is a Cherokee horse diver suffers a terrible loss during her act, and the story unfolds from there. There are several magical realism elements to this historical fiction story that I particularly enjoyed. It’s a good mix of heavy, whimsical, funny, and dark. It’s told from different characters’ perspectives, and the audiobook is great.

December

Keyword – dance (or some variation thereof)

Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon – This was a re-read for me, and it was just as amazing the second time. I especially liked reading my signed copy!

So I guess I finished most of the challenge this year, but I think my journey with it ends here. If you want to challenge yourself to read a book a month with a thriving community but want a lot of leeway in deciding what your specific book is, this one or their monthly motif reading challenge (now at chapteradventure.com) is a good place to start. They also have a round-up of all the 2024 reading challenges they know about, so that’s a good place to find one you like, too!

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Since this summer, I have been keeping track of the Modern Mrs. Darcy Minimalist Summer Reading Guide. We’re just going to ignore that it’s not summer and hasn’t been for a while. We are also going to skate right by the fact that I also haven’t finished some of these books (although I have either obtained them all or at least have them on loan from the library. Sometimes intentions count?). 

We’ll just focus on what I did finish. Here’s what I thought of some of the MMD team’s favorites.

• Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld – This was a (mostly) fun read with a few serious moments that affected me deeply. The love story was a lesson in learning to communicate clearly. It was also an interesting (and intentional? Perhaps not?) exposure of socioeconomic privilege, which almost overshadowed the love story for me. At the risk of spoilers, a lot of things could have gone a lot more badly if either character wasn’t gainfully (and, at least one of them, extravagantly) employed. Content warning for healthcare fears and access, particularly as it relates to COVID. 
• The Late Mrs. Willoughby by Claudia Gray – I haven’t started this one, and I’m going to start with The Murder of Mr. Wickham because, while I recognize that MMD said the second in the series could stand alone, I am just not that kind of reader. 
• Talking at Night by Claire Daverley – I own it but have not started.
• The Postcard by Anne Berest – Currently checked out from the library and judging me ominously (it’s pretty thick) from the shelf in my living room. I’m sure it’s a very nice book that I will enjoy once I get to it. 
• The summer reading guide listed Congratulations, the Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas, but I wanted to read his first collection of essays, Here For It, first. I’m so glad I did. I loved both of these books. I already have the one on the challenge, but I’m going to have to buy the first one, too, because there will come a time I am schnockered and will need something to read aloud from (or pressure others to read aloud from). Also, I want to buy a second copy for my church’s library. Thomas is charming and hilarious. And the title essay, wherein he talks about his challenges of faith and his wedding – I want to shout it from a mountaintop. I want to sing it to the rafters (but won’t – I’m no Whitney). But yes, Lord, and amen. Congratulations, the Best is Over! is also fantastic, as he wrestles with returning and finding his place in the city he never meant to come back to. Highly recommend both books.
• Yellowface by R. F. Kuang – I read this book so fast. It was a well-crafted train wreck and a great exposition of the downward spiral someone might go through as they keep rationalizing unethical actions. It’s a fantastic analysis of the process of whitewashing in the publishing industry. I recommend it and even read it twice so I could lead the discussion in November at one of my work book clubs. 
• No Two Persons by Erin Bauermeister – I love the concept of this story. It traces a book through multiple readers and outlines how the book changed their lives. It was well-written, and the stories were very sweet. This is a good audio selection, as each chapter was read by a different person, so it was super easy to keep them distinct.
• The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by Shannon Chakraborty – Another I’m looking forward to reading soon (ideally before I run out of time to recheck it from the library).
• Banyan Moon by Thao Thai  – I am a sucker for a story told from multiple perspectives. It keeps me from siding with just one person, thus helping me gain a fuller understanding of the story overall. Seeing this tale of family and the complicated relationships often involved in it through the eyes of three generations was very effective. 
• If We’re Being Honest by Cat Shook – I started out listening to the audio of this but switched over to the library’s print copy, and I enjoyed that more. This was one of those books that I spent most of it yelling, “Just talk to each other!” in frustration. There weren’t a lot of surprises – most of the plot points that seemed like they were meant to surprise were pretty predictable. I liked most of the characters, though, and I enjoyed seeing how everything eventually worked itself out. 
• The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry – The ending is a little predictable but there were still a few small surprises. Mostly, I enjoyed the theme of forgiveness and mended relationships that run throughout the book. I listened to the audiobook while driving around all over west Texas to see family, and it was a lovely companion for that trip.
• The Museum of Ordinary People by Mike Gayle – Confession: I do not love museums. I mean, they’re fine. They are interesting enough. But, like…an hour’s worth of interesting. I like to browse casually and at a regular pace, and then I want to leave and get a coffee or a snack. I do not want to make a whole day of lingering there. I did love the main character’s passion for this project, though, and I’m always a sucker for a story about finding your place in the world. The story was sweet and charming, and there was a twist at the end that I did not see coming at all.

So…not too shabby, actually. I have read most of them, and I definitely see why they made the cut for the MMD challenge. 

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